All the dogs have either been to the Cuckmere or the lake at least once this week and thoroughly enjoyed themselves and learnt, and we too have loved it. We chuckle at Tinks little tippy toe into the cuckmere, she is sooo gentle in her entrance into the water, whereas Ellie is like the rest of the gang and just takes an almighty leap into the river.

Jay Jays' work in the water is beautiful to watch, she goes such distances in the water and takes commands/directions that astound me. Though she does it for us, so if we bore her with water work she will pull up the drawbridge,

bless her heart. My fault as I enjoy watching her water work so much I can get carried away.

Having her mum, Mia, there as well, working the girls as a brace is yet another joy I could get carried away with.

We do feel truly blessed with our dogs.

I have also had the pleasure of two Alfinmarsh owners coming for a walk this week, Tracy with Rhett on tuesday and then Vicki with JJ on friday.

It is such a pleasure to have the company of those two women and always a joy to see an Alfinmarsh pup come back for a walk.

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29.5.12 Jay babe on lake today, nearly went wrong.wmv

It was only her second session doing this distance across the lake and it nearly went wrong. Sent her for the first retrieve and once she picked the article up she went to come back via the bank. The ...

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31.5.12 Mia and Jay Jay at cuckmere.wmv

First clip is Mia being sent for retrieve but when I throw the second retrieve for Jay it lands to close to Mia and Mia changes direction for it so I have two girls going for one item. So I say Mias' ...

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23.5.12 Alfie and Bella at the lake.wmv

Our retired guys having fun at the lake today. Alfie was a gent to Bella and Bella was a ladie he he he

Well, are two youngest are a year old and it s so hard to believe that fact.

These two sweeties, as you all know are sisters from the same litter and have been left untouched for most of the year.

We took the decision when i had the fall down the stairs, to 'not touch them' until I could run, bend and happily move as one needs to when training

young dogs. Normally we train from the get go, all fun training but still training, and I would be a liar to say I didn't worry as the months ticked by over whether we had made the right decision

We hoped and prayed that it would not be the wrong decision and that with our work we do with each Litter, giving them a lot of stimuli and socialisation before they leave us to go to there new homes, and basically by not doing anything with them that might cause trouble when we did start the training.

We had people say of Ellie that she would have so much trouble all the time with her eye, and touch wood she has had none. I even had one person say that their dog was useless at smelling and not much drive, which they put down to the fact that their dog had only one eye. Our Little Ellie has so much drive and a very good nose and is fully, if not to much., switched on :)

We also have heard over the years 'oh noooooooo you shouldn't keep two from a litter as they will not bond with you' etc. People often say that they keep their dogs totally on their own in kennels so they do not pair with another dog diminishing ( as they see it) their bond with the dog, saying to do all of this just makes it so hard for training.

But we had no issues with Mia and Jay Jay when we kept them with their mother and couldn't see their bond between the two of them getting into the way of our bond with them. The human bond was the worry for me, particular worry as Gary was the one who would do most of the playing with Tinks and Ellie as they grew as I could not kneel down to do so, meaning Tinks at one point was certainly more bonded with Gary.

BUT we have now started training and our wild pups have started their journey to hopefully many many years on shoot having fun with us.

Tinks is bonding well with me and I think she is a little sweetheart who is so like her older sister Jay jay it is uncanny. There seems to be no issues caused by having kept her sister, or through the lack of training over the moths. Yes if I was to do a list of what Jay Jay could do by one years of age and what Tinks can now do, the gap would be huge BUT if we compare them by length of time they have been trained, the boards would be equal.

Neither Gary or I have regretted keeping the two, and they have given us great joy and have enriched the pack individually.

May we also take this opportunity to say

Thank You To All The Alfinmarsh Owners

We have always felt blessed by the people who have become Alfinmarsh owners. They have been wonderful to the Alfinmarsh pups and many have become close and dear friends, we promise to take more care of you all over the following year

We have taken the pups to the lake twice in seven days and we have been very pleased with them. Poor Tinky was to brave and dived straight into the lake and gave herself a shock, bless her, Such a brave girl who is certainly now thinking about doing it again but just thinking.

We start the young ones off on the reed beds, this enables them to paddle into the water whilst feeling secure because the reeds make for less splash back, security of normality and it is not so deep that they need to swim, enabling them to keep their feet on the ground.

Ellie very quickly moved on from the reeds beds to diving into the lake, very quickly, and she swims as if she has been swimming for an age where as Tinks because she dived straight into the lake before getting use to the water, is not so far forward but we know in her own time she will turn into a water babe and a great water babe, until then we will let her paddle away in the reeds :)

In the video clip is Jay jays first lake work of this year and Ellie's second session ever. I have also put a little clip of Tinks doing a land retrieve, bless her.

Jay Jays session had to be done all in one go because we had Ellie with us and we didn't want little Ellie to get cold.

Jay Jay done all I asked of her which was very Lucky seeing as I had a back seat driver in Gary, he said when I redirected Jay Jay with an out command that I should have just let her go straight back as I had not, as yet, given her a straight back in that session. I took no notice and still sent her out and then when I reviewed the video saw that Gary was quite right, I hadn't let her have a straight Back, don't you just hate it when you have senile moments, he he he!

Then on the next retrieve I redirected her out and Gary let Ellie paddle in the reeds in the direction of Jays out :) Talk about distraction, once she had corrected herself she needed a back command.

Jay Jay seems very happy of late and I am very happy with her and how we are processing together, roll on the summer.

Ellie was a star, only her second time in the water :))

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water works with Jay Jay, Ellie and Tinks on land.wmv

Jay Jays first lake work this year and we had to do it all in one go for her as Ellie was with us and we didn't want her to get cold. She done all I asked of her which was very Lucky as I had a back ...

Tinks as i said earlier is still in the reeds so the clip is of her on the land. I should have NOT said steady to Tinky when she was out on her retrieve, as unless the pup needs it, I like to leave them to it to work it out themselves and to not

get in there way.

Oh by the way my 'out' is command for left or right :)

Please excuse mama mia having a moan whilst Tinks did her retrieve, but ha, even the old girls can have a moan once in a while, he he he!

The sun is being kind this week, for this time of year that is, and we are very grateful. I am also very grateful for little Ellie, she has been the Key to bringing Gary into training and it is so nice to have someone out there with one, for some of the time. She is also an angel when I put her Lubrithal Eye Gel into her eye once a day, not that she has had any trouble with it since the original and only eye infection the little girl had when a tiny pup, the eye drops is a lubricating fluid to aid in moisturising the eye and the third eye lid so it will go on every day just as my face cream does :))

Ellie is also a fantastic cuddle monster and when I watch her and Gary together I have very high hopes for them as a team, and one just looks at her and one can't help but smile.

We have walked the girls up the lane together this week, and I think the way it will go over the summer is that I will train Tinks in the morning and possibly Ellie if Gary does not get the time, though that will be separate training. Then in the evening we walk the girls together, Gary with Ellie and myself with Tinks doing throws for one another, teaching them patience and to work together.

Tinks is just so Like Jay Jay in manner and hopefully in style and drive that I look forward to becoming a team with her, I just hope the 'winter of no training' will not ruin it for us. She is also like Jay Jay in being an escape artist as the little toe rag jumps the fences to get into the back garden, she also has a single bark going on that will have to be stopped, bless her. Often over the bay horse in the field that stares at Tinks, Tinks Stare back and then 'Yap', then quiet, then 'yap' he he he

Well, Tinks and Ellie finally had a week of training, nearly every day, Gary training Ellie and myself trainning Tinks. Knee held out thankfully so it is now a case of getting on with their training whilst strengthening my knee etc.

They got their puppy certificates last week, we took them to the wonderful team that is Linda and Erik, friends of ours who run training classes nearby http://pawsdogtraining.co.uk/

We went to socialise the girls as although they were socialised when they were with the whole litter because of the fall they haven't had much socialisation since. Jay had her bronze kennel club certificate by the time she was 5months (I think, give or take) but we have to remind ourselves that I trained Jay jay from the get go, we have only just started training Ellie and Tinks.

Tinks fell in love with Erik, still Tinky likes all people, though bless her she was so scared of this yappy dog it was ridiculous, he he he!

Ellie was a sweetheart for her Gary and they looked so good together it warmed my heart.

We took the girls on shoot yesterday and to add to a good day one of the puppy owners came along with their 18 month old Alfinmarsh Forrest.

He will be joining the shoot now and his wife will be joining with her cocker, which is great as it means we will have the added joy of having another Alfinmarsh on shoot.

Thoroughly enjoyed the shoot working the girls together, especially in my favourite areas which is the mixed cover crops and the dense coarse bushes.

Though what I wrote in the previous up-date, that I was worried that temptation may start to pull Jay Jay forward with so many of the other shoot dogs working forward, DID happen. My angel Jay Jay who has for a long time now hasn't been herself pulled forward whilst working and talk about deaf ear, bless her.

Most of the time though it was a Joy to work the girls.

I worked a small mixed cover crop strip with a chap who had brought his lab on shoot for the first time, therefore was on lead. Gary was with Mia... in the woods on the side of crop.

If it had been a trial, the first half of the cover crop the judge would have said about Jay Jay 'Lovely, lovely dog' she needed no whistle worked beautifully and put a couple of birds up stopping at each one :)

Second half of the cover crop the judge would have tapped me on my shoulder and said 'sorry Miss but can you regain your dog and leave' he he he :)) Mama Mia joined me 2/3rds in and the girls worked the crop together beautifully :))

All in all, mama Mia = fab :) Jay Jay = some good sections some really naughty, naughtiest she has ever been.

Leconfield Field Trial on the 9th

What a cracking bunch of people there was at the trial, Gary and I chatted, caught up and had a giggle while we waited for our run which was not for a while seeing as we were number 15th to run.

After the shoot day we knew that whilst Jay Jay looked stunning most of the time she worked, that she was/is going through a teenage stage but little did we expect her to do what she did.

As soon as we started our run Jay Jay hit onto scent, I thought 'yes' we could have a good run here, FAMOUS LAST WORDS. Within minutes she flushed a pheasant out of the brambles, sat as the gun shoot at the bird, the gun missed the bird but it flew low and landed quickly in the brambles. Jay babe, bless her presumed it had been shoot and without waiting for my command ran in to retrieve it. Yep, that was the end of the trial for us and poor Gary was in pure shock as he said 'she has never done that before'! Well she has now Gary he he he

Well, lets do a catch up before we look into what will hopefully be a cracking 2012 for us all with our families and dogs.

We went to our regular shoot on boxing day and as normal for this season Jay-Jay came with us but this time so did Mia. We felt Mia deserved to come with us as she is the one who has less walks at the moment with my knee as it is, yet not once has she been a nuisance through boredom. She has not been on shoot as we did not deem her fit enough especially as what exercise she has had has been freedom walks, no training, we need not have worried. David Lisett once said of our Mia, 'She was a dog that he could shoot over all day' and as always he was sooo right.

Gary started off working her but she is so use to me working her that I started to work the pair of them when beating through the wood. It was made easier by the fact that when in woodland Jay Jay can be trusted to keep a nice and tight pattern whilst Mia can be trusted to range, bless her, though range maybe a slight understatement this time :)

Thankfully Mia does not range forward, she just covers more of the beat line, which to be honest I like as we have quite a few dogs on shoot that hunt forward and back rather than side to side, which means they will miss game which our girls will find. Jay-Jay found and flushed a hen bird from under a log that other dogs had just run over, though the little toe rag moved 2-3 paces on it. This forward running does mean however that a lot of the birds that Mia and Jay-Jay would come across are flushed before they even get there by other dogs.

That is something we will have to review as whilst with Mia being an experienced girl on shoot and therefore can take what must be disappointing for them, working when they know dogs are forward of them and therefore flushing birds that Jay Jay and Mia would want to,

Jay Jay is not as experienced as her mum and therefore could be tempted into running forward. She has not been tempted so far but it is very much a possibility with young dogs.

Our Little jay jay did make one mistake, an easy one for a young one, she pegged a hen bird that was so far in a dense bush that it could not move any further. Jay Jay went in to flush but upon finding it could not move brought it out to me, it was totally unharmed, though Jay Jay had more thorns and scrapes from that one bush than the whole day :)

Mia,as always excelled in the thick cover, she will go into the most nastiest of bushes without any hesitation. We are hoping it will rub off on Jay Jay as Jay is totally willing to go into thick cover if she can smell something in there but doesn't want to enter if there is no smell, which could be because of the barb wire injury she acquired last season.

Mia worked particularly hard in a very nasty strip, 200ft-50ft, looking for a hen bird that a young gun had shoot and a cock bird that an older man had shot. The cock bird had the gun and picker up in disagreement as the gun said he had definitely shoot it and the picking up chap said that the gun had missed it, going onto say that he had even seen it land and happily run on. Well shoot etiquette is to never leave a bird that may be damaged, quite rightly so, therefore we felt we had to make sure the cock bird was not there meaning instead of just working 1/6 of the strip for the hen bird, Mia had to work the whole strip.

She worked it wonderfully, knowingly covering all of the patch and of course out she popped with the hen bird but not the cock bird.

We are lucky on our shoot as guns and beaters all mix together and the Guns are a particularly nice bunch of men and women as our the beaters and pickers up. Sadly this one gun was not feeling the joy of the day, I wonder could it be because the younger boy had more than likely out shoot him and the picker up had been prove right he he he

I was so pleased that Gary was there though as boy can our Mia pull on the lead when on shoot, daft thing walks nicely by my side off shoot though, he he he

Looking Forward

Well, we have a lot to look forward to with the dogs, starting with the training of the pups when this darn knee allows it.

We so need to get cracking on that otherwise we will just have two pet dogs in the house, which is totally fine but with so much potential I would rather i did train them especially as I know it would add to their enjoyment.

Then we will have Mia's litter to look forward too (fingers crossed), her last one ever so we may leave that until winter time, we shall see.

We will hopefully have the time this year to give our Jay Jay the experience she needs to move on in her trialling, injury to her and I getting in the way for this season. We have sadly not been lucky in the draws either for the trials, with up to 50 people entering a trial and only 16 needed, the chances of being pulled out of the hat are getting slimmer so we may not get another run this season. Fingers are crossed that we at least get to run in the London cocker trial at the end of the month as it will have many friends there of ours therefore a day we will not want to miss even if we do not get a run, though fingers crossed we will..

Finally may we take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful and enjoyable 2012 for you and your dogs

Headed of to Hamptworth on friday the 4th for a session with Nick Gregory, and as always we had a cracking session, Nick being a saint.

The four hour round trip to Hamptwoth to spend time with Nick was so worth while + the knee whilst feeling weak and abused held up, though it is really upset now :(

He said during the lesson that Jay jay patterns out really well and is very good at marking.

I was especially pleased with her because of the time off she has had. She now has it all there and if she makes a mistake it's because I have done something wrong.

That was something Nick said, and he is quite right.

Bless her heart she does us proud.

I was hoping this week to be training Jay Jay everyday but at the moment I seem to only be able to work Jay jay every other day, if I am lucky, because of the knee.

I have managed to trainning Tinks a few times as well over the past week, just little sessions, not enough though.

Tinks and Ellie can be the 'WILD CHILD'S' at the Christmas Gathering :) Which we are really looking forward to seeing so many of you again :)

Really annoying that I cannot give all the dogs a training session everyday, especially as I hoped by now that I would be able to do so, but I'm pushing the knee as it is so I will just have to do what I can.

Well this hop along person, me, managed to do some training with Tinks this afternoon.

Gary is over the moon with her and commented on how pleased he is with the pairing between Mia and Ftch Deepfleet Jay. The pairing seems to keep giving us good dogs, for as Gary said, Tinks hasn't had any training and yet it's all there, drive, desire, honesty, and fingers crossed style.

In these two clips below you see her drive and desire. In two parts because after hunting for a long time for a newbie she came back to me and Gary thought I would end it there, but i didn't.

Tinks had so much drive and desire for the ball and had been hunting for such a while I really wanted to give her the reward. So I gave her a back command and of she went once again. When Gary saw i had sent her back he started the camera up again and caught her going back and achieving this time. I was so pleased with her keeping that drive all through that time and remembering the location for all that

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part one memory

Tinky went off for the retrieve which had landed in the toughty grass and bless her she hunted har and long for a newbie but when she came back Gary turned the camera off thinking I would not resend h...

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part two.AVI

3rd clip is of Tinks doing another retrieve after the above one, in the same place to get a clean retrieve :) Well done Tinks

Well my knee maybe upset with me for doing it but today I managed to do a bit of work with Tinks and then Jay Jay, with Gary's help.

We did a bit of quartering with Tinks in this sectioned of part of the field, our 'lets pretend rabbit pen'. She has her parents genes in her as she does it all naturally so my aim will be to not hinder her in the training process but to nurture her and Ellie to their full potential.

The rest of the gang will be taken out tomorrow by Gary who is Taking time off partly to get the dogs out after their many weeks in, and to prepare for the winter. Whilst Bella and myself are on a slow recovery plan the other dogs will really appreciate his in put :)

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Tinks 2

Love this clip and if you wait till near the end you will see a tender moment between Mama Mia and Rosie, who is turning into a bit of a sweetie already :))

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Jay Jay retrieve 2.AVI

My knee is not up to quartering Jay Jay yet but at least I can get out to give her some retrieves. Only her 5th outing in I think over 5 weeks because of my knee but better five then none :)

Jay Jay had retrieves out in the field and after she got some of the excitement out of her system, she settled down to do some nice simple retrieves.

Just 5 training sessions in 5 weeks for her, that girl has got every right be buzzing when she comes out, though bless her it didn't take to long for her to settle back down.

I still can hardly see that teal dummy, spec savers her I come, he he he